Skills

Skills represent specific things your character is good or bad at. How high or low your character is in a skill will determine how well your character can perform the associated action.
For example, if your character is a very good brawler, the chances of him/her winning or hurting somebody in a fist fight are much higher than if (s)he wasn't.
Skills are also based on general overall abilities called 'stats'. These overall, or governing, abilities will add bonuses to your characters skills depending on how high the stats are. In essence, your characters stats will determine the highest level your skill can effectively be at. (see 'help stats' for more detail)
Skills are initially set in character generation, but can be improved upon directly within the game. You can trade in your character's 'skill points' in exchange for higher skills. This is done via the 'SPTrade' command. In addition, your character's skill can be altered by various actions your character does (having an implant installed, for example).
Skills have a 'cap' value on them. When your character reaches that level of ability, it costs many additional SPs to go beyond it.